- Sep 13, 2002
- 94,989
- 193,397
- 113
Quite an eye-opening deposition from former City Administrator Craig Malin here.
“The loss of life, injury and loss of property by residents of the Davenport was preventable had city staff acted upon information they possessed, with authority and resources the City had at its disposal,” Craig Malin, city administrator for 14 years until 2015, wrote in a sworn affidavit.
Malin is under contract as an “expert witness” in a suit brought by tenants of 324 Main St. against building owner Andrew Wold and the city of Davenport.
In the affidavit, Malin said the city had the knowledge and power to evacuate the building, secure the site, and prevent the three deaths and loss of homes and belongings as a result of the May 28 collapse.
“The deadly collapse of The Davenport was not just foreseeable, it was predictable and preventable,” Malin wrote. “It was so predictable that, when first notified by text on May 28, 2023 by City Administrator Spiegel, ‘sounds like part of 324 Main collapsed,’ Mayor (Mike) Matson responded, ‘324?? Is that the Red wall?’ correctly deducing the exact wall that had collapsed.”
Malin was Davenport’s city administrator from 2001 to 2015. The city council approved a separation and transition agreement signed by Malin in 2015 after the then-mayor called on him to resign. The resignation followed controversy over a deal to grade the lot at the privately owned casino.
The separation included severance payments and required Malin to forgo legal claims against the city, according to previous reporting. Malin was hired as city manager in Seaside, California, just a few months later, in December 2015. Since 2021, he’s served as the village administrator for Poynette, Wisconsin.
Then-assistant city administrator, Corri Spiegel was appointed interim city administrator upon Malin’s departure, then hired on in a permanent capacity in 2016 from among three finalists and more than 30 applicants.
In the affidavit, filed as part of an amended petition earlier this month, Malin contends that he had “observed deficiencies in the qualifications of individuals appointed or hired in leadership roles in the City of Davenport since June 2015.”
Malin, who initially hired Spiegel to work for the city, wrote that prior to her appointment as interim city administrator, “Ms. Spiegel had no experience leading a local government of any size.”
He also argued that she replaced the city’s department heads with less experienced people.
He said that her organizational and personnel changes meant “there appears to be no civil or structural engineer, or public-safety professional, in the chain of command of rental inspections, in a city with over 15,000 rental housing units.”
On Wednesday Spiegel wrote in an email to the Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus: “As this is active litigation, I cannot provide any comment.”
The city has not filed a response to the amended petition.
Spiegel was Malin’s assistant city administrator from August 2014 through June 2015. Before coming to Davenport, Spiegel was economic development manager for the city of Centennial, Colorado.
Malin also wrote in his affidavit that Spiegel was less transparent. She no longer posted responses to all public records requests online nor copies of incoming and outgoing emails to the city administrator, Malin wrote.
He referenced emails, including a brief April 12, 2023, email, requesting a meeting about “structural issues” at 324 Main Street.
“Anyone could have seen the email ... and questioned the city about the unpermitted work and structural issues,” Malin wrote.
Malin wrote that the city’s documentation released to the public “shows the City of Davenport had extensive knowledge, across multiple departments, of the extreme public hazard The Davenport presented.”
Malin referenced engineering reports from Select Structural, February complaints from Mid-American and March fire marshal violations in saying the city knew about the condition of the wall that collapsed May 28.
Malin wrote that city code prescribes that buildings and structures “in such condition as to make it immediately dangerous to the life, limb, property or safety of the public or its occupants, it shall be ordered to be vacated.”
“In sum, city staff had days, weeks and months of notice that the west wall of The Davenport was failing and dangerous,” he wrote.
“Any code enforcement officer, chief building official, fire officer, code enforcement director, public works director, or city engineer who knows a load-bearing wall of an occupied century-old six-story building is visibly buckling at its base has a duty to act in the public interest to immediately notify the city administrator of the danger, so the city administrator may direct the structure and site be secured and residents vacated, utilizing public-safety personnel,” Malin wrote.
In February, the city ordered Wold to hire a structural engineer to conduct an emergency site evaluation at 324 Main St. Select Structural detailed shoring and repairs to be done, but said the building did not need to be evacuated.
But Malin claimed that city staff had “no obligation to solely rely upon any engineering analysis from any firm hired by any property owner with Mr. Wold’s record of inaction code violations and cost-cutting.”
City could have prevented building collapse deaths, former Davenport city administrator says
The fatal building collapse of 324 Main St. in Davenport was “preventable,” a former Davenport city administrator said in a recent court filing.“The loss of life, injury and loss of property by residents of the Davenport was preventable had city staff acted upon information they possessed, with authority and resources the City had at its disposal,” Craig Malin, city administrator for 14 years until 2015, wrote in a sworn affidavit.
Malin is under contract as an “expert witness” in a suit brought by tenants of 324 Main St. against building owner Andrew Wold and the city of Davenport.
In the affidavit, Malin said the city had the knowledge and power to evacuate the building, secure the site, and prevent the three deaths and loss of homes and belongings as a result of the May 28 collapse.
“The deadly collapse of The Davenport was not just foreseeable, it was predictable and preventable,” Malin wrote. “It was so predictable that, when first notified by text on May 28, 2023 by City Administrator Spiegel, ‘sounds like part of 324 Main collapsed,’ Mayor (Mike) Matson responded, ‘324?? Is that the Red wall?’ correctly deducing the exact wall that had collapsed.”
Malin was Davenport’s city administrator from 2001 to 2015. The city council approved a separation and transition agreement signed by Malin in 2015 after the then-mayor called on him to resign. The resignation followed controversy over a deal to grade the lot at the privately owned casino.
The separation included severance payments and required Malin to forgo legal claims against the city, according to previous reporting. Malin was hired as city manager in Seaside, California, just a few months later, in December 2015. Since 2021, he’s served as the village administrator for Poynette, Wisconsin.
Then-assistant city administrator, Corri Spiegel was appointed interim city administrator upon Malin’s departure, then hired on in a permanent capacity in 2016 from among three finalists and more than 30 applicants.
In the affidavit, filed as part of an amended petition earlier this month, Malin contends that he had “observed deficiencies in the qualifications of individuals appointed or hired in leadership roles in the City of Davenport since June 2015.”
Malin, who initially hired Spiegel to work for the city, wrote that prior to her appointment as interim city administrator, “Ms. Spiegel had no experience leading a local government of any size.”
He also argued that she replaced the city’s department heads with less experienced people.
He said that her organizational and personnel changes meant “there appears to be no civil or structural engineer, or public-safety professional, in the chain of command of rental inspections, in a city with over 15,000 rental housing units.”
On Wednesday Spiegel wrote in an email to the Quad-City Times/Dispatch-Argus: “As this is active litigation, I cannot provide any comment.”
The city has not filed a response to the amended petition.
Spiegel was Malin’s assistant city administrator from August 2014 through June 2015. Before coming to Davenport, Spiegel was economic development manager for the city of Centennial, Colorado.
Malin also wrote in his affidavit that Spiegel was less transparent. She no longer posted responses to all public records requests online nor copies of incoming and outgoing emails to the city administrator, Malin wrote.
He referenced emails, including a brief April 12, 2023, email, requesting a meeting about “structural issues” at 324 Main Street.
“Anyone could have seen the email ... and questioned the city about the unpermitted work and structural issues,” Malin wrote.
Malin wrote that the city’s documentation released to the public “shows the City of Davenport had extensive knowledge, across multiple departments, of the extreme public hazard The Davenport presented.”
Malin referenced engineering reports from Select Structural, February complaints from Mid-American and March fire marshal violations in saying the city knew about the condition of the wall that collapsed May 28.
Malin wrote that city code prescribes that buildings and structures “in such condition as to make it immediately dangerous to the life, limb, property or safety of the public or its occupants, it shall be ordered to be vacated.”
“In sum, city staff had days, weeks and months of notice that the west wall of The Davenport was failing and dangerous,” he wrote.
“Any code enforcement officer, chief building official, fire officer, code enforcement director, public works director, or city engineer who knows a load-bearing wall of an occupied century-old six-story building is visibly buckling at its base has a duty to act in the public interest to immediately notify the city administrator of the danger, so the city administrator may direct the structure and site be secured and residents vacated, utilizing public-safety personnel,” Malin wrote.
In February, the city ordered Wold to hire a structural engineer to conduct an emergency site evaluation at 324 Main St. Select Structural detailed shoring and repairs to be done, but said the building did not need to be evacuated.
But Malin claimed that city staff had “no obligation to solely rely upon any engineering analysis from any firm hired by any property owner with Mr. Wold’s record of inaction code violations and cost-cutting.”
